The Presidency has said it is not
interested in investigating the killing of troops of the Nigeria army by Boko
Haram insurgents in Metele, Borno state.

Shehu Garba, the Senior Special
Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, made this known on Thursday
when he featured as a guest on Channels TV’s breakfast show, Sunrise Daily, in
Abuja.

According to him, probing the
circumstances surrounding the Metele attack, which the army authorities said
led to the killing of 23 soldiers, would constitute an, “unnecessary
distraction for the armed forces.

His words: “I will not agree that
investigating the Metele attack is necessary. I would think that if that is
done, it will be an unnecessary distraction of the armed forces who are
fighting hard with their whole lives to safeguard the country.”

Shehu also declined speaking on
the balance of the $1bn security fund sourced from the Excess Crude Account to
buy Super Tucano fighter jets and supplementary armaments for fighting the
insurgents valued at an estimated sum of $500m.

He simply said: “It is true
nearly half of that ($1bn) has been spent on the Super Tucanos. All of the
balance been spent? I don’t know. I’ll rather leave it at that.”

The presidential spokesman
further stressed that the war against the insurgents is no longer technically
defeated but actually won.

He maintained that the recent
attacks were handiwork of mercenaries pursuing ciminal economic interests in
the Lake Chad basin.

“Beyond technicalities, Boko
Haram has been degraded and actually defeated.

“What we are dealing with is that
Boko Haram has becomes generic term to describe the kind of activity and
terrorism that is cross border happening in the Lake Chad region.

“When they (Boko Haram) raid,
they do not seek the conversion of people to their creed or the sense of their
own religion. So, it is an important point to make.

“The re-emergence of of
mercenaries (in the Northeast), certainly by non-Nigerians, and deployment of
equipment increasingly sophisticated including drones that could last five
hours in the air scooping information on sensitive military positions in our
country?

“The entire thing calls for new
strategy, better understanding and patience by Nigerians.”